Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 1 Mar 1995

Vol. 449 No. 8

Adjournment Debate. - Transfer of Dublin Corporation Properties.

Mr. Lawlor

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to raise this matter. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy McManus well in her very important, complex and challenging brief. I have no doubt she will bring her excellent talents to the role and I wish her every success.

The issue now arising dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when the intentions for the future placement of the population growth of the greater Dublin region were cast down following the Myles Wright report of the late 1960s. The theory was good but, unfortunately the practice was deplorable.

My constituency contains two of the new satellite towns of Clondalkin/Lucan and Blanchardstown. In North Clondalkin there are many thousands of corporation houses. It is the only area with the stigma of having an interdepartmental committee to examine a task force study on urban crime which arose because a minute percentage of a wonderful 20,000 plus community caused trouble some years ago. Many issues arose. One was the isolation and lack of contact with Dublin Corporation, the body that constructed the homes of the people who reside in North Clondalkin. Successive Governments can be criticised, but at the heart of the problem was the incompetence of management and what was done in County Dublin by Dublin Corporation. Its elected council would not disagree with its management, about redressing some of the anomalies we had to contend with in the county.

In regard to the properties being transferred, Dublin Corporation is retaining a ten year monopoly in the allocation of these houses to future applicants on the housing list and also wishes to ignore the deplorable level of maintenance and lack of spending on the upkeep of these residences. It has, for years, taken the rents into City Hall, and has put nothing back by way of community facilities. It has been an absolutely deplorable house developer and landlord. The trenchant criticism of the corporation's approach is one that I hope the Minister will vigorously address when called upon to act as honest broker in an endeavour to resolve the matter between South Dublin Council and Dublin Corporation. This also applies in the case of Fingal County Council. If the corporation's scheme was implemented a heavy financial burden would be placed on South Dublin County Council which would not be allowed to meet the needs of residents as a result.

The rent arrears outstanding in Dublin Corporation estates are considerably higher than the amounts outstanding in South Dublin County Council estates because of the frustration and annoyance of residents at the lack of maintenance.I trust that the Minister of State will intervene and inform Dublin Corporation that its housing stock and other assets will be transferred to the democratically elected local councils for management purposes.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Ms McManus)

I thank the Deputy for having confidence in me, his kind words and for raising this issue. For reasons I will outline later, there is very little I can say at this stage on the matter.

It might be useful if I set out in a general way the background to the current position. For many years, Dublin Corporation has been building houses and purchasing land for housing and other purposes in County Dublin. The situation had developed to the point that Dublin Corporation had a housing estate of some 7,500 houses in the county. This was clearly not an ideal situation from the point of view of efficient organisation and of proper democratic representation. That such a large number of houses in the area of one local authority are owned by another which is responsible for management and maintenance and that the local authority members elected by the residents of these houses exercise no control over these matters is clearly undesirable.

The break-up of Dublin county into three separate local authorities was bound to exacerbate an already confused position in housing. The same arguments apply, with somewhat lesser force, to land holdings generally. The Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1993 sought to rationalise this situation by providing that, in general, houses should be owned by and be the responsibility of the local authority in whose area the houses are situated. Similarly, lands not immediately required would be transferred from one authority to the other.

Clearly, a reorganisation of this nature poses complex issues, including the terms under which transfers are to take place. For this reason, the Act set out a procedure where schemes would be prepared by the managers, after consultations with each other and their elected councils. Schemes so adopted were to be submitted to the Minister for approval. The other authorities affected then have the right to make submissions to him.

As required by the Act, Dublin Corporation has made schemes for the transfer of dwellings and land owned by it and situated in the functional area of South Dublin County Council to that council. These schemes were received by the Minister for the Environment on 22 December 1994. Copies were also sent to the manager of South Dublin County Council and submissions in relation to the schemes were received by the Minister from that authority on 16 February 1995.

Under the provisions of the Act, the Minister is now required to consider the schemes together with South Dublin County Council's submissions on them. He may approve the scheme as submitted, make revisions to the schemes, or direct that another scheme be made taking account of specified matters.

In view of the quasi-judicial nature of the Minister's statutory functions and the short time the schemes and submissions are with the Minister it would not be appropriate to comment at this stage on the possible outcome. The issue and the interests of all concerned will be considered very carefully by the Minister before he reaches a decision.